STEM Speakers Bureau

The following speakers may be available to speak at your elementary, middle or high school's Science, Technology, Engineering, Math career day or STEM school, on a variety of related topics. Contact 951-826-5109 for more information.

Lea Deesing, Chief Innovation Officer, City of Riverside

Lea Deesing serves as the Chief Innovation Officer for City of Riverside, managing a staff of almost 60 Information Technology professionals, and as the Executive Director of SmartRiverside, a nonprofit which teaches ex-gang members to refurbish computers that are given for free to low income families in Riverside.

Lea holds a Bachelor’s of Science in Information Systems from the University of Redlands, and a Master’s in Public Administration from California State University, Dominguez Hills.

Prior to moving into management, Lea’s background was in computer programming. Her love for programming originated from her fascination with codes and ciphers, known as cryptology. She cracked the Tiger Beat Magazine’s fan club secret code when she was just nine years old. When she was sixteen, she started programming computers.

Lea Deesing, Executive Director of SmartRiverside and Riverside Chief Innovation Officer may be able to visit your middle or high school to present a STEM session on "Cryptology and Logic: In Everyday Life and in the Field of Computer Programming." For more information about Lea's past speaking experience, click here, or for her detailed professional background click here.

Kevin Crawford

As the former Chief Information Officer for the County of Riverside, Kevin managed an Information Technology organization of 300+ people, with responsibilities to oversee all aspects of the technology environment, including: Business Systems, Infrastructure, Communications and Administration.

Kevin was an Assistant General Manager for the Information Technology Agency of Los Angeles and Bureau Chief of the Infrastructure and Communications Bureau. He oversaw the project to migrate 17,000+ staff to the Cloud-based Google Apps for Government.

Before joining the City of Los Angeles, Kevin spent five years as the Chief Information Officer for Central Puget Sound Regional Transit Authority (Sound Transit). Kevin designed, built and implemented a central Information Technology Division for Sound Transit.

Prior to his tenure at Sound Transit, Kevin was the Chief IT Architect and Senior Manager at the Port of Seattle. He managed projects to build new web-based infrastructures and an organization wide information security plan. Other accomplishments include working at Weyerhaeuser Company for 7 years as the Regional Support Manager and serving as an Officer in the US Air Force for 9 years. Kevin holds bachelor’s degrees in Psychology & Political Science from the University of Washington and a master’s degree in Computer Information Systems from Boston University.